Developing a teaching-research nexus in teacher education: recounts of an educator’s self-study

ABSTRACT

This study shares perspectives on how a teaching-research nexus could be developed in teacher education practices. The focus is on one teacher-educator’s experience of learning to communicate the mutuality of teaching and research initiatives with a group of learner-teachers and colleagues during a college-based teacher education course in Eritrea. A self-study that includes interactions with critical friends, interviewing, and researcher diaries, facilitated in exploring the challenges and improvements in developing a teaching-research nexus while supporting the reflective collaborative practices of a group of learner-teachers. Using the analytic notion of turning points, we share findings on how the teacher-educator positions roles in the process of pedagogizing research, encountering uncertainties and finding practical resolutions while learning to support reflective practices, and a reframed notion of modelling. The study highlights a pedagogy of showing in contexts where teacher-educators are challenged to mediate between aspired and actual teaching practices.

እዚ መጽናዕቲ፡ ኣብ መደባት ስልጠና መምህራን፡ ዝምድና ምስትምሃርን ምርምርን ብኸመይ ኪምዕብል ከም ዚኽእል ሓደ ኣረኣእያ የካፍል። እዚ ድማ ኣብ ኤርትራ ኣብ መሰልጠኒ መምህራን ኣብ ዚውሃብ ዝነበረ ትምህርቲ፡ ሓደ ኣስተምሃሪ ንተማሃርቲ (ሰልጠንቲ) መምህራንን መሳርሕቱን ብዛዕባ’ቲ ኣብ መንጎ ምስትምሃርን ምርምርን ዘሎ ተማላላእነት ዘሕለፎ ተመኵሮ ኸካፍሎም ከሎ ዝቐሰሞ ምህሮ ምርኩስ ዝገበረ’ዩ። ተማሃርቲ መምህራን ሓባራዊ ነጸብራቓዊ ተግባራት ንኸማዕብሉ ኣብ ርእሲ እተገብረ ጻዕሪ፡ ኢሂን-ምሂን ምስ ሞያውያን መሓዙት፡ ቃለ-መሕትታት፡ ከምኡ’ውን ምምዝጋብ ውልቀ-መዘክራት ተደማሚሮም ኣብ መንጎ ምስትምሃርን ምርምርን ንዘለዉ ዝምድናታት ኣብ ምምዕባልን ምድህሳስን’ውን ኣበርክቶ ከም ዝገበሩ የርኢ። ኣስተምሃሪ ብዛዕባ’ቶም ናይ መቐይሮ ነጥብታት ትንተናዊ ኣምር ተጠቒሙ፡ ሰልጠንቲ መምህራን ናይ ተመኵሮታቶም ኣንጸባረቕቲ ንኪዀኑ ብኸመይ ከም ዝሓገዞምን በሪኽ መቓን ኣርኣያነት ንኺላበሱ ከምዝገበረን ርኽበታቱ የካፍል። ብዘይካ’ዚ ኣስተምሃሪ፡ ንምርምር ኣካል ስነ-ምምህርና ኣብ ምግባር፡ ኣብ ምግጣም ዘይርጉጽ ኵነታትን ክዉንነታውያን ውሳነታት ኣብ ምውሳድን ዝተሓልፈ ተመኵሮ ኣብ ርኽበታቱ ኣቕሪብዎ ኣሎ። እዚ መጽናዕቲ’ዚ ስነ-ምምህርና ብኣርኣያነት መታን ኪግሃድ ሰልጠንቲ መምህራን ነቲ ኣብ መንጎ ዚትምነይዎን ዚትግብርዎን ኪህሉ ዚኽእል ፍልልይ ናይ ምምህርና ሞያ ብኸመይ ከም ዘተዓርቕዎ የብርህ።

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching-research nexus
• teacher education
• self-study
• reflective practice
• Eritrea

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Samson Eskender at the Ministry of Education, State of Eritrea, for facilitating the translation of the abstract to a local Tigrinya language.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Eritrea has nine labelled ethno-linguistic groups that are officially declared to be ‘equally’ used in public and educational domains.

2 The colleague educator was teaching undergraduate courses at the college of education in previous years. However, she was in the middle of her MA at the time of the study and thus did not have any teaching responsibilities that semester.

3 Four contact hours per week for a period of 16 weeks.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish National Agency for Education, EDUFI.